Thread: Legal body and wheel modifications

Is there any "practical" reason for a body lift ?

Originally Posted by trout1105

Is there any "practical" reason for a body lift ?

More room inside the wheel wells to fill with larger things i.e. Tyres.
You can tub the rear iirc but not the front in Vic, so that's no use.

I'm sure the pros and cons of different types of lift are done to death in other threads, and frankly the lift isn't the issue, im happy to live with a 2" lift.

Ultimately the goal is to buy a new set of tyres since my D2 currently has highway tyres installed and I want to use it for offroading, and since I really don't want to repeat this cost I was looking at buying larger tyres and received the advice that 2" lift and 33" was the way to go.

My D2 already has had the airbag suspension replaced with springs and poly-bags.... I understand there is not an issue with lifting poly-bags.

Reading these forums I get the impression that there are a lot of people running round with tyres larger than 31", yet I can find no evidence that this is legal without engineering certification anywhere in Australia, so I can only conclude that

• you are getting these installations certified (unlikely)
• you don't know (quite probable)
• you just don't care (after all this is Australia)

So, my choices appear to be.....

1. Just use 31" tyres and forget the lift kit
2. since I've got the lift kit install it and use 31" tyres
3. since I've got the lift kit install it and use 33" tyres, when get stopped by police just plead ignorance, and hope I don't get screwed by insurance if I need to make a claim
4. since I've got the lift kit install it and use 33" tyres, and get it certified
5. 3+ when I have the car road worthy tested remember to put the 29" highway tyres on and tell the tester I just wanted a better view)

Originally Posted by trout1105

Most of the lift conversions on a D2 replace the air bags with springs

I mean the safety crash air bags located in the steering wheel.

To do a body lift properly requires a lot of work. With not a lot of negatives.
To do a suspension lift requires little work and lots of negatives.
Larger tyres will gain you the most benefits with a few negatives

I was told at the tyre joint that 245/70/16's were the biggest I could safely go without getting a lift on my D2a, I was most likely lied to But I got the crappy skinny tyres that came with the truck replaced anyway.
I am toying with putting 265/70's on when these tyres finally wear out, They have done 45k so far and are less than half worn so I wont need to make that choice for a wile yet.
I have done plenty of bush and beach work since then and I haven't gotten into any trouble yet.
Not much Mud around here and having a muddy truck is a bit of a status symbol hereabouts anyway as is shows that you have had some good rain on the property
They have also done a bit of rock crawling admittedly only limestone stuff so not slippery only lumpy.
All this without any sort of lift Just judicious selection of tyre pressures and not doing anything stupid, For me personally the D2 is more than capable of doing what I want it to Bog standard without buggering about with lifts and oversize tyres.

I had 245/75/16s on our D1 with a 50mm suspension lift. They scraped on full articulation. The steering had to be adjusted. Acceleration was slowed. Braking was worse. The MTRs were really noisy. I wouldn't do it again.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I had 245/75/16s on our D1 with a 50mm suspension lift. They scraped on full articulation. The steering had to be adjusted. Acceleration was slowed. Braking was worse. The MTRs were really noisy. I wouldn't do it again.

Thats 10mm wider than stock! Had the same on a d1 i once had, barely noticed the difference!